The present invention relates in general to a parking management and personal guidance system for persons traveling to a predetermined activity; and, more particularly, the invention relates to an electronic system which aids a driver of a vehicle in finding an available parking space in a large parking area or garage using previously stored information as to the destination of the driver at which a predetermined activity is to take place, directs the driver from the parking space to the designated destination, guides the driver as to this/her movements during the predetermined activity, aids the driver in finding the parked vehicle after the driver returns to retrieve the vehicle, provides a means of communication to obtain help at the parking space in the case of an emergency, automatically charges the cost of parking to the driver's credit account, and provides security against theft of the vehicle from the parking area or garage during the drivers absence.
As larger airports, arenas, stadiums, halls, shopping malls and various centers for sports events and the performing arts are being built to accommodate ever increasing numbers of people who wish to view or otherwise participate in activities associated with these venues, the problems involved in providing convenient parking for large numbers of cars have increased tremendously. Even with the availability of public transportation in some cases, these problems have persisted, since most people prefer the convenience of travel in their own vehicles.
In the case of a sporting event, for example, parking attendants will direct drivers so as to progressively fill a large parking area without regard to whether a parking space to which a driver is directed is convenient to the entrance closest to his or her seat, and this makes it difficult to find one's way to that gate and seat, not to mention the difficulty in finding the vehicle when leaving.
Additional problems occur when parking at an airport. Often, passengers arrive at the last minute at the airport and need to reach the terminal as quickly as possible. If they have a vehicle to park, there is the problem of finding a parking place in the parking garage without too much driving back and forth. Also, to save time, they should park close to the exit which leads to the particular terminal or gate from which their flight is leaving.
Thus, they need to know what terminal or gate they are to go to, what exit from the parking garage is closest to that terminal or gate and what parking space is available close to that exit.
Another problem with airport parking occurs when returning on a flight. Often a passenger will forget where his vehicle is parked, particularly in a complex multi-level parking facility. Such parking garages will have signs instructing people to write down the location of their vehicle when they park, so that they will be able to find the vehicle later when they return, but it is not uncommon for people to ignore such advice or lose the note they wrote with the identity of the parking location.
There is also a problem of theft of vehicles from a parking garage. In those parking facilities where an attendant is provided only at the exit to collect parking fees, security can be a substantial problem unless there is some way to match the parking ticket with the vehicle itself. In this regard, a thief could come to the parking facility on foot, obtain a parking ticket from the automatic dispenser by simply pressing the button, obtain access to and start a vehicle in the garage and drive away through the exit after paying the attendant using the parking ticket. Unless the attendant can match the parking ticket to the vehicle, he has no way of knowing that the vehicle is being stolen.
People also need some guidance in going from one facility to another, such as from a parking area or ticket counter to a boarding gate in an airport, where a monorail or tram is provided to reach the terminal building where the gates are located from separate buildings where parking is provided or the ticket counters and baggage check-in are provided. Typically, the only guidance that is now provided is in the form of video monitors located at the ticket counters or at the gates themselves, thereby requiring passengers who arrive in the parking area to go to the ticket counters to find out what gate to go to even if they already have a ticket or don't need a ticket or wish to check baggage.
Guidance is particularly needed for airline passengers on connecting flights who need to go from an arrival gate to a departure gate at an intermediate stop, often with little time available. Where travel between gates on a monorail or tram is provided, it can be confusing to a passenger not familiar with the airport to determine what stop to get off at to reach the departure gate.
Further, passengers who board a plane sometimes have trouble finding their seats even though they have a seat number printed on their boarding pass. Attendants are available to aid such passengers, but some people still sit in the wrong seats, causing confusion and possible delay of the flight.
Various parking management systems have been proposed to address some of the foregoing problems. For example, the Farmont U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,314 discloses a system in which detectors are provided in each parking space in a parking facility to determine which spaces are occupied. The system then can direct incoming vehicles to an empty space; however, the space selection is made indiscriminately and without regard to the destination of the driver after the vehicle is parked.
The Farmont system also has a security feature in that the number of the parking ticket is stored in a central data base along with the number of the space assigned to the vehicle at the time the ticket is issued. Then, if a thief attempts to steal a vehicle, a comparison is made between the ticket being presented and the number stored in the data base for the space which is evacuated, and, if the numbers do not correspond, the vehicle can be stopped. However, this scheme has numerous problems, the most likely of which is that the person who is parking the vehicle may not actually park it in the space assigned to him/her, which would completely confuse the system. Further, Farmont provides no guidance or aid to a driver after he/she leaves the parking area.
The Zeitman U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,481 also discloses a parking management system having a security feature in which a central control unit having a data base stores such information as parking facility availability, vehicle identification, user identification, billing information, time of use information, and law enforcement information. However this system is used primarily to provide information to anyone looking for an available parking facility within a city or town, to facilitate billing for the use of a parking space and to aid law enforcement in preventing improper use of parking facilities.